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A grandmother who was told by paramedics not to dial 999 even if she had a heart attack took an overdose after repeatedly being refused hospital treatment.

Dorothy Southard, 89, fell outside an Oxford bingo hall in April and contacted the NHS helpline number 111 on three separate occasions because she was feeling unwell.

Paramedics from the South Central Ambulance Service were sent out on each occasion but could not find anything wrong with the pensioner - despite her having two bleeds on the brain - and declined to take her to hospital for a check up.

As her hidden condition worsened, she again called 111 again on June 7 to say her "head felt heavy" and described feeling as though there was a build up of fluid, but no ambulance turned up.

Ms Southard's daughter Anne Weston was on the phone to her mother and advised her to dial 999, only for a paramedic to turn up and tell her not to call for an ambulance again.

With her condition worsening, Mrs Southard found herself unable to get out of the bath the next day, but after the dressing down she was given by the paramedic, she was too scared to pull the emergency cord in her home to raise the alarm.

By chance, she was found by her granddaughter after two hours, and the pensioner was eventually admitted to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

But doctors failed to spot the bleeds and sent her home. On June 12, ambulance staff failed to pick her up for a health check.

Feeling alone, and still suffering from the undiagnosed brain bleeds, she called her daughter that evening to say she had taken an overdose.

Mrs Southard's daughter said the family still feel angry and let down at her mother's "appalling" treatment by the South Central Ambulance Service.

Mrs Weston, talking of the warning her elderly mother was given by a paramedic, said: "She was in a terrible state. She had to crawl along the floor to unlatch the door ready for when the paramedics came.

"But when they came he just told her not to call 111 or 999 again. I was on the phone and I said what about if she has a heart attack? He just replied still do not call 999. I was so angry I couldn't believe what he was saying."

But nothing prepared her for the call she would receive after weeks of neglect by the health service. Talking of the phonecall she received from her mother to say she had taken an overdose, she said: "I was terrified. She actually said to me 'please don't bring me back' - she just felt she had nowhere to turn.

"She was very tearful and told me she was holding a picture of my father in her hands."

Dorothy Southard at her home in Oxford holding a photograph of her late husband BobCredit:
Oxford Mail/SWNS

Paramedics eventually arrived and rushed her to John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, where she received treatment and a CT scan which finally identified two bleeds on the brain sustained during her fall two months earlier.

Mrs Weston said: "It just makes me angry to think the paramedics can do that. If I wasn't around she wouldn't be here now.

"What happens to other people who don't have some to fight their corner?"

Ambulance bosses have apologised, and admitted the level of care provided was unacceptable.

A spokesperson for South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) said following an investigation, the trust had issued a "sincere apology for the unacceptable level of care".

The spokesperson added: "As a result of this investigation, disciplinary action was undertaken along with identifying additional training and supervision for the individual staff member involved.

Mrs Southward who has three grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren is still now recovering at home having spent 10 days in hospital.